Nesting, nesting, 1, 2, 3

Feeling discontent & self-loathing mounting, I tried to seek inspiration in a book called The Happiness Project. Keep in mind, I like self-help books as much as I like science fiction, which is to say not at all. But this one looked interesting & it was available at my local library. Fighting hard for motivation to do something other than wallow, I finally managed to read about 10 pages of the book before realizing it just wasn't grabbing me & holding my interest. But it wasn't a complete loss: within those first few pages, the author writes that one of the things she wanted to accomplish was getting organized. I didn't read far enough into the book to allow her to elaborate, but just the mention of how the outward clutter causes her inward discomfort was enough to spark the little light bulb over my head.

I've said it a million times, but when my house is messy, disorganized, or cluttered, my head mirrors that. This phenomenon, this wonderful little quirk in a sea of eccentricities that make me a first-rate nutjob unique, hasn't reared it's ugly head in quite awhile. The last major brain-clutter I can recall was in the house we were renting before we bought our home. I thought the difficulty stemmed from how small that house was. But the house we live in now is twice the size of the last one and the clutter has grown right along with it. Mo' clutter, mo' problems, yo.

So I'm a girl on a mission to de-clutter, reorganize, and make my house prettier. The first thing I have my sights on is the shelf in my kitchen. It's one of our many catch-all areas & frankly, it's ugly. My plan is this: prime it w/ a magnetic primer, paint it w/ chalkboard paint, then toss out the vast majority of the crap that is currently on it.

The reason I mention the magnetic primer & chalkboard paint is b/c not only do I want it to look prettier & be neater, I want it to be more functional. If I can't clear out as much of the crap in our house as I want to b/c I'm married to a pack rat & my daughter is a burgeoning hoarder, then I need to find a way to make certain things function better so it's a more organized chaos.

Once that eyesore is done, I want to tackle Trinity's bedroom. I've decided to throw out & donate the vast majority of her toys b/c she NEVER plays w/ them. I want to keep only what will fit neatly into a single bucket tote, with the exception of a few sentimental items that I will have to find a place for. I want to empty her closet of EVERYTHING that is in there now & turn it into a little reading/homework area. She already has a desk, but I'm going to keep my eyes open for something smaller. I want to paint the inside of the closet a different color (possibly lavender if Trin will go along w/ it) and put her desk & bookshelf in there.

Also on my to-do list, in no particular order, is the eventual transformation of our current storage room into a den-like area. Our bar is too big to move into that room, though that is what we wanted to do w/ it originally, so I'm thinking about getting a folding card table so we can sit in there & play games or whatever. That one's going to be a big project b/c it currently contains mountains of boxes & crap we're storing for family & friends, as well as Justin's filming equipment, etc. I have a full-blown anxiety attack every time I open that door, which is why it stays closed. Then there is my bedroom, which I'm aching to turn into an oasis rather than the mess it currently is. I told Justin I want pretty pictures on the wall, a less cumbersome bed frame, and pretty blankets. He agreed, either b/c he's smart enough to know I'll do it anyway or b/c he's tired of the mess, too. I want it free of crap on the floor. (Minus, of course, Mount St. Laundry overflowing from the laundry basket b/c I'm realistic enough to know I'll never be the kind of woman who puts laundry away as soon as it comes out of the dryer.)

There are also projects I want to finish such as painting the cabinets in our kitchen. I've put that one off for a year and a half b/c I don't want to paint them w/out having all the new knobs & hinges, too. It's going to cost a pretty penny to buy the hardware, so I've filed it away in the back of my mind as one of those things I'll do "when we have more money". But let's face it, we'll never have more money. We have a pre-tween daughter, a gas-guzzling van, our car payment is outrageous & nowhere near close to being paid off, and out mortgage eats an entire paycheck & then some every month. So I'm going to have to work on my list in very small, affordable waves. That is why I'm focusing on the shelf first.

Usually when I finish a project, I'm so proud of myself & how it turned out, that I'm ready to take on the next. I'm hoping to ride that momentum out as long as I can b/c this house needs some serious help & so does my poor brain!